Welcome to Bimmerfest -- The #1 Online Community for BMW related information! Please enjoy the discussion forums below and share your experiences with the 200,000 current, new and past BMW owners. The forums are broken out by car model and into other special interest sections such as BMW European Delivery and a special forum to voice your questions to the many BMW dealers on the site to assist our members!

Yes, the front springs need to be compressed to take off the old ones and also to put on the new ones. An impact wrench is usually a must have. It's somewhat dangerous so some choose to take the front assembly to a shop to swap out the springs.

Did you need to compress the new front springs when installing them on the shock? Thanks for the write up, my wifes front shock exploded last night.

I did not have to compress the new eibach springs whe installing on the bilsteins. I just tossed the old strut and spring away. I consider the orignal strut/spring as low quality if it cant even last 50k miles.

So i got my wheel alignment done. It cost me $59.99 with 6 months warranty. I got it done at http://www.networkautomotive.com/. They did a splendid job. The sepcs used were 2004-2010 BMW X3. The toe needed to be adjusted on rear and front. The camber/caster was within spec.

Thanks X3Mech and Mlukas161. Both of your threads were helpful. I had two busted rear springs. I just installed 4 Eibach springs on Sunday. I am swapping the struts and shocks at a later date. My ride height is at 17" from fender lip to wheel center at all four corners. Totally level. gzep23, the ride is more controlled than with the OEM springs. It takes way less effort to toss the car through sweepers and twists. The ride is less jarring. The car also seems to be more planted through whoops. I also installed cryo rotors and cermaic pads at all four corners. My style 192 wheels are on the way. I can't wait to feel the difference with the entire setup installed.

My friend and I completed the spring and shock swap on my wife's '06 X3 with 70K miles. We used the details of this thread to start. Some changes for us:

Not all parts are still available from the same vendors. I had to mix and match a little and have ended up with some duplicates on the small parts.

Used a GearWrench passthrough socket set instead of the ground down oxogen sensor to tighten the shock nut. The extension for the GearWrench set is long - requires a long allen wrench. Got a long allen set attached to sockets from Sears last minute to hold the shock shaft in place. My Bilsteins were 7mm not 8mm for the recessed allen bolt in the shock shaft. I could not verify 55 in-lb on the nut this way. Even with a torque wrench on the allen socket, the socket would begin to strip before the torque wrench clicked out.

Front axels would not pop out. Needed an extra inch to get the fronts out. Had to use a spring compressor to give us the additional inch installing and removing the shocks. The compressors on the new shocks only fit in one way in the cavity - one with three spring turns and another at two. The spring compressor shafts touched the baseplate for the springs preventing fancy GearWrench set from being used We used a wedge to help pry apart the shock cup for removal and reinstallation.

The shock caps did not fit my new bearing plates. I ended up using teflon pipe tape to make the caps bigger to fit the slightly larger holes of the new bearing plates. Using OEM bearing plates my have eliminated this.

We tried grinding down an adjustable wrench for the sway bar end removal but it didn't work so well. We found a flat tool in the shop that worked. My buddy forgot to set the air gun to "not break" and tore the end of one link off when he accidentally tightened the nut that was already tight and sheared the bolt. For reinstallation of the new part, I ordered the Park Tools Cone Wrench Set - flat and in the correct size. There are thin wrench sets out there but I could not get them in time to be convenient for me.

Both rear springs were broken and were the reason for the swap. We were prepared for the PITA spring removal. We found that by moving the jack out of the way from the suspension we were able to extend the suspension enough to work out the spring by hand and install the new one in the same way. One person on the spring the other pressing on the brake disk with your foot. We used a lubricant safe for rubber on the bottom plate to assist reinstallation.

The X3 sits lower and is scheduled for an alignment. Major improvement felt so far. Thought the job was not easy but not impossible. Saving $1k and new tools was worth the time for me.

X3Mech, Thanks for the great post!
I need to replace all the struts and shocks on my wife's 2004 X3 and I only have max 3 hours per Saturday to work on the car so the more I prepare in advance the better. I noticed that on 3/26 you mentioned not having to compress the new eibach springs when installing on the bilsteins: did you ever had to use a spring compressor at all? like when installing the whole strut + spring assembly? What size is the oxygen sensor socket you used ?
Thanks!

2007 BMW X3 Suspension Upgrade: I was going to use this great post to fix my '06 x3 but at got a price adjustment from the local dealer to do the front pair. Seems this was a good call, though I love to get dirty, the Tech has spend 6 hours getting the old struts OFF ! Having spent many cold nights under my old Chevy bang'in and cussing I'm glad I passed.

I just finished this upgrade over the last two weekends (Bilsteins & Eibachs) here are my observations:
Rear suspension: took me 4 hours total. Removing the rear interior panels is a tedious task which requires lots of patience. To remove the coils I used the OEM jack located at the exterior side of the upper arm pushing down. Some times the jack slipped so I used the spring rubber pad to provide a better anchoring surface. Gloves is a must. Need to be cautions not to hit the jack once springs are being pulled. Good time to check the RTAB's. The lowered suspension created more negative camber but I did not want to mess with the eccentric bolts, I rather pay for this and get it done good for once.

Front suspension: took me 6 hours total (1.5 hours setting up and cleaning work area, 3 hours first strut, 1.5 hours second strut). PB Blaster and the 4 lb orange dead blow hammer from HF Tools are your best friends. I found that removing the calipers makes inserting the struts easier since you don't have to worry about putting too much tension on the brakes flexible lines. Inserting the strut into the bearing carrier takes time, the key is to make sure the tripod on the axle gets pushed into the tulip housing. Lifting the bearing carrier with the jack and hitting it with the orange hammer where the bolt goes made the insertion faster.

Special tools: you need to get a 7/8" oxygen sensor and grind it so it can fit the ID of the strut bearing plate. 7 MM hex wrench is an odd size, once again HF Tools has a complete set for $4.99 can't beat that!

Coincidentally it was time to replace the turanza EL42's so I switched to Michelin Defenders. The car drives superb now! total Freude am Fahren!. This is my wife's daily driver and she is very please with the new set up.

I installed my Bilstein struts and shocks yesterday. I previously installed the Eibach springs. It was just like doing any other shock and strut install. You don't even need to remove the rear wheels to swap the shocks. I the did the job at my step-father's shop and it took the two of us just under two hours to complete on a lift. We spent another 30 minutes on the alignment. I referred to this thread when removing the interior panels the night before. Many thanks for posting this. You are correct. That is about the most difficult part of this job. Have a long t20 torx bit, a set of phillips screwdrivers (you'll need a large and small), a long 10mm socket, and plenty of patience handy. Keep an inspection mirror and extending magnet near as well. Replacing everything wasn't as difficult as removing everything. Luckily, the interior panels and plastics are very flexible. I considered cutting access panels in the cargo area for next time, but I shouldn't need to do this job again before I sell the car.

Just an FYI: My X3 has 85,000 miles on it. The right strut was completely shot. The left still had some service life. the rear shocks were still good. My upper strut bearings were in surprisingly good shape. Very minimal amount of bearing drag and no play at all. I replaced them anyway. The rear shock mounts were like new with a small amount of surface rust. I replaced them too. I bought front upper spring pads, but the originals were like new, so I left them in place. I did replace the lower front spring pads because the right strut leaked all over its pad and it stretched out of shape a bit.

By the way, I bought my Bils and all of the pads and bearings from bvauto.com. They are having a sale on Bils. About $100.00 less than everywhere else for the set. No tax or shipping charges either. It was nice to deal with people who know what they are doing. Eric is awesome and my parts arrived in two days.

This write up is fabulous, especially the pictures. I did the rear shocks and springs this weekend, a standard suspension setup as it is my wife's car. Rear springs were broken, as noted herein it is a common problem, but the dealer never caught it.

I could not get the new standard spring into the carrier, so I rented a coil spring compressor from AutoZone (their tool number 27035 - $50 deposit). It was a little tricky, but worked. No way without the compressor, I tried everything. Be sure to attach as close to the ends of the spring as possible.

Did the front last weekend, again standard Bilsteins using the existing springs. A couple of suggestions:

1. I removed the brake caliper as otherwise you pull hard on the brake hydraulic line when depressing the wheel hub to remove/install the shock assembly, very fast off and then on.
2. The half shaft pulls out from the inside CV joint, but as stated, don't panic. It is best to remember the position of the half shaft, usually has a sticker on it, so it will slide back in place. Worked well on both sides. If not aligned, you can't move the hub up and toward the interior, half shaft prevents it.
3. Penetrating oil is now my favorite tools, after a hammer. The collar bolt on the wheel hub was rusted and only after some heat and lots of penetrating oil did bolt come off, the nut was no problem, but the bolt was rusted in place. I sheered off the head of one side, so replacing both with new, Part # 31303450534 and of course new nuts.
4. For the stabilizer link, I used a pair of needle nose vise grips, worked perfectly as you only need to hold it after initial loosening, not need when doing the final torque.
5. If you forget to wrap the ABS sensor wire around the shock before installation, it is a quick removal with a 5mm allen wrench.
6. Hammer a large screwdriver into the gap on the shock hub base when removing the old shock AND when trying to insert the new one.

I think that does it for suggestions beyond what is already written here, which is SO helpful. Follow the instructions herein, they are proven to work.

Quick question here - do the Bilstein struts and shocks come with their own replacement bump-stops? I'm organizing my shopping list for a full replacement, and want to do it the way so many of you did: replacing every part and simply swapping assembled components. Nowhere can I find a list of what comes in the box.